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Thursday, March 18, 2010

Bret Baier Interviews President Obama

Yesterday, FOX News aired an interview between Special Report's Bret Baier and President Obama. You may remember that FOX News is equal to the devil's spawn in the minds of this White House. Why? It is because FOX News is a bit different that the other news outlets, especially on cable news - FOX actually steps back and doesn't play the role of Obama cheerleader. For this they are ridiculed and trashed by the arrogant Obama personnel and Obama himself. No one loves Barack Obama more than Barack Obama.

This interview was like no other thus far for the president. Why? Baier did his best to not allow President Obama to filibuster with answers and he asked questions for which the president clearly was not prepared. Much of the questioning centered around the process leading to the inevitable vote and the special deal-making involved to twist arms of Democrats, not Republicans. It is his own party, the party with a notable majority in Congress, that is dragging its feet on the legislation. The man clearly does not know the contents of the bill.

This president has been sold to the American people as a former Constitutional law professor. He has been held up as a Constitutional law scholar. As an Illinois state senator, Barack Obama broke the record for voting 'present' instead of yea or nay. The man knows about process. Now, however, he claims the American people don't care about process and that he isn't really interested in the process. Excuse me? Doesn't the Constitution outline the process of lawmaking? Doesn't the Supreme Court rule on laws based on the Constitution?

If nothing else, this political theatre to which the American people have been subjected for over a year proves one thing. Though American education no longer provides a solid background in the subject of civics - now treated as an outdated subject - it is timely and crucial knowledge. Does School House Rock tout the process of 'deeming' a bill instead of actually voting on a bill? No. "I am a bill up on Capitol Hill ......"

President Obama was visibly irritated and petulant. This is much the same reaction he projected during the ballyhooed health care reform summit with the group of Republicans and Democrats that was televised. The Republicans came prepared with ideas and facts. The President and the Democrats did not and it was a disaster for them. They had nothing but sob stories for the television audience. The president did not come across well that day either.

This continuing reaction to any sort of differing opinion does not flatter the man. President Obama hoped to simply hover above the process and not sully himself in the execution. He is not blessed with leadership qualities.

The CBO this morning released its estimate that the bill will cost $640 billion over 10 years. The CBO uses the bill language for estimates. The bill will go online for 72 hours this afternoon, to precede the vote tentatively said to happen Sunday. Will the bill double count the projected Social Security payroll taxes revenue? Or the Medicare cuts? The projected savings of $1 trillion is to be out over 20 years. No one would really be silly enough to believe a 20 year projection of government budget numbers

The president has admitted in the interview yesterday that the big fix needed for Medicare will not be accomplished with this legislation. The truth is Medicare cuts are never produced. Senior citizens are voters and campaign contributors. They are a strong force in the political world.

The argument has gone past substance of the bill language and is now all about the Obama legacy. Democrats are being told if they do not vote for the bill they will in effect take down the Obama presidency.

The president said that if a politician votes no on the bill it is a vote for the status quo. That is his current straw man. He claims the Republicans will vote no because they are happy with the status quo. That flies in the face of the reality of the GOP plans posted online and the acknowledgement of the president during the televised summit that Republicans had some good ideas. He just had no intention of using any of them.

The curtain has been pulled back. The Obama land of Oz, the hopey changey vision of unicorns and marshmallows, the superior morality of the do-gooder in chief is exposed for what it is. The man is a politician from the Chicago machine.

4 comments:

The Nobel is a ticket to one's own funeral. No one has ever done anything after he got it. - T. S. Eliot

Never before has someone showed so little patience and so little wisdom. To Obama it is better to get "something" passed than to see that what is passed is best for all the people. Who really trusts the cost numbers of a bill that you have to fund for 10 years to get benifits for 6 years? Health care isn't a right it IS a commodity... this plan is like putting an item on layaway. There really is very little good about it.

I just hope the doctors don't drop my parents when they exit medicare by the droves.... I really don't expect any physicians to be able to afford to take medicare patients by the time I reach that age.

I am a physician... I have seen the federal government take over more and more of the medical care of the country for the last thirty five years. They foster fraud and abuse and cannot run anything with any efficiency. Physicians have been pushed to accept less and less in payments and pay out more and more in overhead to comply with government regulations and have seen their malpractice rates (if they can even get malpractice insurance in some states) go higher until it is impossible to stay in practice. Combine that with the stress... and.. well, plumbers and electricians have better standards of living... and much less stress. For years now I have been telling those young people who still have the idealized hope of becoming a physician.. "to help people"... that they need to really look hard at it. Can you stand the stress, can your family stand the stress, can you be a family physician and support your family, can you send your child to college, can you cope with the governmental mandates..... you better think long and hard about getting into this profession. If I knew then, what I know now... I would have NEVER even thought of putting myself through all this. Beware... medicine is currently not what you think it should be and this bill will only make that worse.

Your experience is a good reference, Roxanne. I have spoken to several physicans and all have the same opinion as you. Medicare will be savaged, no doubt. Many will simply stop private practice. If reform was the real goal, we'd do the reforms of tort reform, interstate buying power, stop pre-existing condition refusals, and the like.

When I moved from MS to VA I gave Nyssa's health insurance carrier a change of address form. Even after working with health insurances all that time, I really didn't know you could NOT buy insurance across state lines. So when I compared what I could get her here and with what she had, it was less expensive to stay with the MS insurance. For four years we received the bill here and no one ever asked. She used it occasionally for checkups and no problem with non -payment. But when she went back to MS and had to file her own insurance because the doctor there didn't file for her.... suddenly they discovered that we didn't live in the state. She is still covered by them because she is living there for two years while in grad school. But tell me... if the insurance company can't keep track of where the policy holders really live... why NOT let people buy across state lines? It seemed like a logical thing to me when I did it, not knowing we weren't supposed to do so. A little common sense in DC would go along way.

I wrote our two senators... Webb and Warner... both democrats towing the line. I explained how this would affect my parents and how it would affect the physicians... did they listen? No. I doubt they even read the email. I received the typical form letter with the Obama talking points.

I do know that our congressman will be voting NO... I am sure and completely confident of this. Hope the people in Virginia Beach can sway their Congressman... Dye... ready to campaign for his fall opponent.

Roxanne:This has been my theme for a while now - that of the absence of basic common sense in government. And, of course you are right, government programs are inept in accurate record keeping and rife with corruption.